London Nights
by Jubalii
Summary: A collection of unconnected drabbles that I dole out when I'm brainstorming, all AlucardxSeras based in different ways.
1. The Sleight Wizard

"So I'm here to play with your minds a little, perhaps we'll all be crazy together," the man said with a chuckle. The group that had gathered around the small unfolded card table let out mixed laughter as they watched the leather-clad man tie back his hair. He gave them a toothy grin and his ebony eyebrows raised as he looked out at the gathered people who had stuck around to see "Paul Tate: Only a Sleight Wizard". He rolled back his jacket sleeves for further flair before his dark eyes skated once more over his audience. "Now, for this trick I need a volunteer, preferably young and pretty. I'm too poor to afford my own, see?" he drawled in a thick Cockney accent with an accompanying wink.

He singled out a doll that kept drawing his attention, although he couldn't place _why_. She was rather unremarkable; a young woman in a police uniform with short blonde locks and amber eyes. She was accompanied by either her boyfriend or her father- it was hard to tell which, considering the man wore the most reflective glasses he'd ever seen and was covered head to toe in clothing that looked like it belonged in a history book. He pointed at her, beckoning her to the table with a smile.

"How about you, love?" The woman's eyes lit up and she pointed hesitantly at herself before nodding and flouncing forward, despite her companion's hand flitting up to grab her shoulder. She made her way to the card table with only an irritated glance at her partner, whose face had become drawn. _Maybe he thinks I'm going to make a pass at her,_ the man thought with a mental grin. _Ah, he's got nothing to worry about. She's cute, but I like green-eyed girls. _He put an arm around her shoulder and held up her left hand in a victory sign.

"Alright, let's give it up for our volunteer!" he said and the crowd applauded politely. The girl blushed, an adorable shade of pink journeying across her cheeks before fading at her ears. "What's your name, love?" he asked her, chuckling at the way she tried to avoid his gaze.

"Ah-um, it's Seras," she finally stammered.

"No need to be nervous, Seras. You've got the easy job," he joked with a large grin. She giggled, one gloved hand moving to cover her mouth as it opened. The magician thought he saw some rather sharp teeth, but her hand moved so fast it was covered before he could investigate. He felt a wave of vexation from the crowd and a subdued shiver worked its way down his spine. He looked up briefly to see the crimson-clad man staring at him; well, he could feel the man's gaze, but his eyes remained hidden. He smiled anxiously and picked up his cards, spreading them out for the table to see.

"Now look everyone, this is a normal deck of cards. No tricks; not yet anyway." He gathered the cards back up and folded them out to show the girl at his side. "My gorgeous police girl will now choose a card out of the deck, keeping it to herself and not showing me or you." He smiled at her and closed his eyes until he felt one of the cards move out of his fingers.

"Okay?" She nodded. "Don't want to change your mind? Happy with the brain you've got?" She had opened her mouth, but a quick laugh rolled out at his joke and she shook her head again, all nervousness vanished. He rolled his eyes indulgently at her before reaching into his pocket.

"Alright, so I've got a 20 pound note here in my back pocket," he frowned. "Damn, I need twenty more." He looked out at the audience, pointing to a man at random. "What have you got?" The man reached into his back pocket and his eyes widened as he pulled out a card. He showed it to the magician, who laughed and took it from him to display to the crowd. "Looks like he has Jack-squat," he quipped, laying the Jack of hearts down on the table. The crowd laughed, the man's wife patting him on the back as he rubbed his head, shaking it in wonder.

The magician went through his short trick script and finally, the time came for the final trick. He turned to the blonde, seeing that she had been watching the show with enthusiasm. "Now, Miss Seras- you're a policewoman, right?" The girl nodded slightly.

"I'm a captain for private hire," she said carefully. He nodded and leaned on the table, looking her over accordingly.

"I suppose you need to put yourself under arrest then," he shrugged nonchalantly. The young lady's eyes bugged out of her head and she looked at him incredulously.

"W-why?" she asked.

"Well, you've stolen something of mine." He held up a hand when she opened her mouth. "N-n-now, don't try to argue. I see it right there in your bra. Look for yourself, if you don't believe me." The amber gaze stole down to her breasts, where she questioningly tugged her collar open to gaze into her shirt. She let out a surprised squeak and pulled out a folded playing card, opening it curiously. "Is that the card you chose?"

"Yes!" she cried, showing it more to her companion than the crowd. "Look!" the crimson-clad gruff broke into a small smirk and he was sure the man was rolling his eyes at his companion's astonishment. He bowed and the crowd burst into cheers. "Thank you, thank you!" he called and held out a tin bucket. "Donations are always welcome, though the show is free!" A few people threw notes into the bucket and he smiled and waved as they walked off. The man and the police girl also turned to leave.

"Wait," he called. The young woman turned back to look at him. "Vampires, right?" Her eyes widened and she backed away a step, closer to the man.

"It depends on who's asking," the man replied, also turning and letting his glasses fall down his nose to reveal a darker, crimson glare. The man grinned and held up both hands in a gesture of surrender.

"It's alright, mate. I'm just another mage, trying to make my way in the world. No need for violence here." The man sneered at the status, but the girl's eyes glittered with wonder at the term.

"Mage? Like a sorcerer or something?" she asked excitedly. The magician shook his head.

"Naw, love. I have to have at least another 500 years under my belt before I can be a sorcerer. My mum told me about you vampires, though. She's a witch, and so she knew about your kind. I knew by the bloody- well, the smell of blood, no offense." He rocked on his feet, staring. "I've only never seen them before now, is all. I didn't know England still had vampires."

"What, do you want our autographs, jester?" the man asked in annoyance. "I told you not to stop here," he added angrily to his acquaintance. "You're a little simpleton, still watching silly displays." The girl wilted under his remark before sniffing and turning her head.

"You didn't have to stick around, Master. I knew he wouldn't hurt me, even if he was magic." She gave him an icy glare before looking shyly at the magician. "Is that why you chose me, because I was a vampire?"

"I didn't hear that in the requirements. I said I needed someone young and pretty," he replied as he winked. She giggled, visible only for a moment before a red cloak concealed her from view and they were walking away. His ears picked up the guttural growl and he wisely let them leave, the girl's answer faint beyond the sounds of the city.

"It's not like we had a mission to go to, Master. Why do you have to be so _mean_?"


	2. First Time for Everything

"Lazy, lazy little Police Girl," the smooth voice echoed both in her mind and through the room as the coffin lid was lifted and the bright light of her new room flooded the small space. She rubbed one hand over her right eye and blinked up at the shadowy figure looming over her. "Do you always sleep so long? The night's already begun."

"It's your fault," she muttered as she rolled out of the coffin, hitting the cold stones and lying with her cheek against them for a long moment before picking herself up.

"Oh?" Her master's amused tone only infuriated her further and she gave him a "drop dead" glare as she made her way slowly to the tiny chest-of-drawers and pulled out her uniform, shaking the wrinkles from the shirt.

"Sadly, I didn't sleep very well last…day. I seemed to find myself without a bed, you see," she ground out through clenched jaws. "The only thing I had to sleep in was a filthy, dirt-packed coffin. And it was bloody uncomfortable too."

"You put yourself in that coffin. If you had only drunk the blood, you'd have been able to sleep in a real bed like all the other, more obedient little fledglings do." Seras turned to him with a subdued growl. She liked her master, but why did he have to be so damn annoying at times?

"Well, just ask Sister Catharine and Sister Martha; I'm not the most obedient person out there." She showed him her wrists, covered in scars from the many ruler-beatings she'd been given at the orphanage. Her gloves usually hid the raised marks, and she didn't enjoy showing people. Somehow though, she felt that Alucard would understand. He grabbed her hands in his, bringing them up closer to the light to inspect the white lines.

"They beat you?" he finally said. She nodded, untangling her hands from his and putting on her gloves.

"Of course. I was never a model child, and the Sisters in charge of the orphanage were notoriously strict. "Don't slouch, Seras. Eat all your food, Seras. You think you can pick fights with the other children, Seras?" They were probably happy to see me go. I was always wrong in their blessed opinion." She rubbed her wrists, her eyes distant. "The other kids were never in the wrong, but of course their rich parents paid well for them to be there, because they were illegitimate. _Real _orphans like me were never treated as well, since we didn't come with an income." She walked over to her tiny adjoining bathroom and left the door cracked until she was completely dressed before coming back out. Alucard sat on her coffin lid, giving her a strange look.

"Don't expect me to pity you," he ordered softly. She shook her head, one shoulder coming up in a half-shrug.

"I don't. You said I wasn't obedient and I was just showing that you were right." She heard a strange sound coming from over her head and looked up. "What's that?" she said, a chemical smell drifting down and making her wrinkle her nose.

"They're still cleaning up from yesterday. New wallpaper, new paint, new rugs- my master doesn't want any trace of blood or gore left from yesterday's… fiasco."

"It wasn't a fiasco. It was a mass murder," she corrected. "How many humans were left?" she didn't want to know the answer, but she wanted to know the answer. Alucard pulled her down to sit beside him on her coffin, and she curled her feet up under her legs and leaned into him slightly. He didn't push her away, but didn't encourage her closer either.

"Counting Integra and Walter? 10. And that's not counting us, either." Seras whimpered quietly, her mind still reeling with the scenes from the day before- the men she was getting to know mowed down by two crazy freaks from some "Millennium". Add her still shaking fear after the scene in Badrick a few days before, and even a few weeks before that… when she was still human and was fighting for her life against what she thought was a homicidal priest.

"It's all too much," she whispered to herself.

"Hmm?" She looked up to see Alucard staring down at her. She sighed and shook her head.

"So much is happening so fast; it's only been a month or so since I was even turned into a vampire, and looks what's happened. I've been chased down by a fanatical vampire hunter, and these two guys tried to murder _everyone_ in the mansion and almost succeeded, and those two kids killing all those families… It's overwhelming; it's going so fast."

"It _is _unnatural, all these vampire sightings at once. It's almost like World War II all over again," Alucard admitted. His face fell out of its usual smirk and he looked quite serious for a moment.

"World War II?" Seras asked, leaning up away from his shoulder.

"Huh? Don't worry about it, Seras," he muttered. "I killed them long ago." She beamed up at him. "What?"

"Master, that's the first time you've said my name," she said with a smile. "You said "Seras", not "Police Girl" or "Idiot" or anything like that." She felt her mood brighten a little and tucked her arms under her knees. He stared down at her for a moment before actually rolling his eyes, another first for her to see from him.

"You're a little simpleton. Getting all excited over something so stupid." He stood, grabbing her arm and actually lifting her off the ground before dropping her back to the floor. "Come, let's go and see if Sir Integra has something for us tonight. If she doesn't, we're going to resume your reflex training."

"Please promise you're not going to push me off the roof this time," she whined as she followed him out the door. "Master?" Her only answer was dark laughter and she prayed to any god that would listen that there was another vampire out tonight that needed to be silenced.

* * *

**Afterword:** You guys probably don't care about this... but Juju has a blog now. I was blackmailed into it by my own brain. You can follow me, if you like. And please tell me if you have a blog, so that I can look you up!

**onceagainslacking . blogspot . com**


	3. The Kindness of Strangers

"Hey baby, you going my way?"

"Woo, check out the legs on _that_!" Seras turned to glare at the two obviously drunken men that had been following her for the past five minutes. Even as a vampire, she couldn't shake the slight fear that had been pounded into her mind from the time she was old enough to know she was a girl. Suspicious men + booze + alone and unprotected weak female = bad news. She gave the two large men her best "perverts!" glare and crossed her arms over her breasts.

"Can I help you with something?" she growled angrily, tapping her boot rapidly on the asphalt. She was more than aware that her back was up against a dimly lit alleyway, where no one would look twice at two men and a girl, especially one dressed like her (in disguise) with short-shorts and a halter top. _Whore and her pimps, _they'd think and walk on without a word. The less-inebriated of the two winked at her, swaying slightly as he sauntered closer.

"Maybe you can, my sweet." Seras began to unconsciously back away from the looming male, her undead heart jumping up into her chest. Part of her wanted to call for her master, who was waiting for her only a few blocks away. But she felt that she had to learn not to rely on him for every little mishap. She knew as much as she hated thinking about it at the moment, she'd have to drink his blood and break away from him sometime in the future. He wasn't always going to be keen on protecting a grown woman who could look after herself, and had done so as a human for years before meeting him.

Still, she'd never faced down two plastered hulks without her trusty pistol by her side, and she didn't want to have to use her claws. She was liable to get carried away and accidentally rip off their face. Looking down at the obvious bulge in the man's pants, she considered a swift kick to the groin as an escape measure. _But still, I have the other one to think about. If I hurt his friend, he might react. Not that he'd be too fast for me…_.

"_There_ you are, love! I was looking everywhere!" Seras looked around her assailant to see a skinny, gawky man come jogging around to give her a hug. She was about to sheepishly point out that he had the wrong woman when he whispered in her ear. "Play along," He backed away, grinning toothily at her before speaking aloud again. "I misheard your call. I thought you had said "pawn shop" and I was halfway across town before I-" He turned and looked at the two stunned men. "Are they giving you trouble?" he asked threateningly, his hand tightening dramatically on her shoulder as he tugged her close. "You blokes giving my girl problems?"

He glared stonily at them and they seemed to get the point across, even in their intoxicated state. They shook their heads and mumbled something dismissively before backing away and leaving. The stranger gave a humph and sniffed haughtily. "Tanked-up, legless fools." Seras awkwardly untangled her shoulders from the man's skinny arm before blushing up at him.

"Thank you, for that. It was really nice of you to help me." The man turned and she studied him in the light from the main streets. He had mousy brown hair that was slicked back but looked neither greasy or slimy. He wore a plain brown suit with a starched white shirt underneath and polished black shoes but no tie, cufflinks or anything that would disclose him to be someone of wealth. His frame was wiry, making him almost as tall as her master if not a little taller. He had wire-frame glasses that looked older than she was, with thick plates of glass.

But it was his face that enchanted her. He had pure gray eyes- not the steely gray/blue that some people sported, but the purest shade of gray that she'd ever seen before – and they sparkled behind the lenses with a strange brilliance. He had faint laugh-lines around his mouth, but otherwise he was smooth faced. He held the same strange, ageless quality as Alucard seemed to have; the ancient, perpetual _something _that made it hard to tell if he was supposed to be considered an older man or young. He tilted his head under her scrutiny, one brown brow arching above the frames.

"Something you like, love?" he joked and she turned a bright shade of crimson as she realized she'd been staring. She started to apologize and he held up a hand, chuckling at her stammered words. "No need, no need. I seem to have that effect on people." He looked down at her, the gray eyes peering over the glasses as they slid down his nose. "Now, why is a young lady like yourself walking around alone out here on these crime-filled streets, especially at this time of night?"

"Oh, well I'm supposed to be meeting someone a few blocks over that way," she started and jumped when his arm linked through hers and he began leading her in the direction she'd pointed out. Seras looked up at him, wondering if that _something _that he shared with her master was a spark of insanity, or just eccentricity.

"Say no more; I will be your escort. I'd hate for you to run into any more trouble," he added, looking down at her as if he knew that trouble seemed to follow her around. She looked into his eyes and smiled, feeling herself relax. Her new acquaintance may be insane, but at least he was friendly and she felt no odd vibes coming off of him.

"Thank you, but you don't have to do that," she offered, subtly trying to find a way to sneak her arm out of his. He held on with an iron grip, laughing and diverting the subject to the bustling streets of London. They made small talk from window-shopping to politics and everything in between, pausing for Seras to give the occasional direction.

It wasn't too long before she spotted her master's hat above the crowd. The people seemed to part and she waved to him, still linked arm-in-arm with the kind man. "There he is! Thanks again for coming here with me; it really was sweet of you," she started to say, but when she looked up at him he wasn't listening to her.

She looked to where he was staring at to see her master staring back. Both of their faces showed no emotion, but the stranger's eyebrows slowly rose until they looked like they'd detach and float off into the night. She looked back to see Alucard pull his glasses enough to show the crimson irises underneath, and the two men both smiled in an enigmatic way. The man let go of Seras' arm and lightly pushed her in the crimson-clad vampire's direction. She backed away before waving shyly and turning. The man waved back.

"Until we meet again, Miss Victoria!" She had already reached her master and froze as she realized that they'd never exchanged names. She pivoted back around in alarm, but the tall man was gone. The crowd spilled around the vampires again and she felt Alucard put a hand on her shoulder.

"Little troublemaker. Come on, let's hurry back so we can write the report and I can go to bed. The sun's beginning to rise." Seras allowed him to guide her through the streets and back to the mansion, her mind tumbling with the recent events.

"Master, did- did you know that man?" she asked hesitantly, still peering over her shoulder at the street corner. Alucard gave a small grunt and pulled her along as she tried to stop.

"A long time ago, he worked for me. Although I think it was more for his own purposes than any particular care for my well-being." Seras looked up at him, reading between the lines.

"He's not human, is he? Is he your friend?" she asked as she obediently hurried her pace to match his. He let out a short laugh at her words.

"No, he's not a human. Far from it. And no, he's not my friend." He seemed to ponder something for a moment. "He's more of a pain in my ass, really. He's always around when he doesn't need to be."

"Well, I'm glad he was around tonight," Seras declared with a nod. "He really helped me out." Alucard placed a hand on her head, shaking her around and almost knocking her into a wall.

"Yes, it seems that you just can't seem to stay away from dangerous situations. I don't know _why _I ever had the notion to make you one of us. You're going to die in some stupid way, I just know it," he growled, but there was no bite to his words. She rolled her eyes at his teasing. "If he wants to look after you, he can have you. It's no skin off my bones," he added.

"Master, if he stole me away you'd come and get me," she said confidently. He didn't answer. "Wait, was that a hint? Is he Fairy-folk or something?" That earned her another short laugh. _Two in one night, Seras. New record. _

"No, he's not a fairy. It's convoluted and paradoxical, what he is." Alucard went pensive again for a moment. "He's a demon, but the good sort."

"I didn't know there _were_ good demons," Seras said doubtfully. "You're putting me on, aren't you?" Alucard looked back at her, his eyes completely serious behind the orange lenses.

"They're a dying breed, and they all exist in this mortal plane. Where we're going, you don't have to worry about any _good _demons." He resumed his walking with an oppressive silence, the sign that talking was over. Seras frowned, breaking into a jog to keep up with his long-legged strides.

"You don't know that's where I'm going," she hissed under her breath, but as always there was no response as the two hurried back to their basement home, trying to outrun the early light of morning.

* * *

**Author's Note:** I couldn't help but add Renfield again into a story, even a drabble. He's just so fun to write, especially interactions between him and Seras. Seeing as LA is currently on hiatus, this is a good way for me to slowly get back into writing that character. Plus, I absolutely love him. Even in the movies, I always loved him. _"There's obviously method in his madness." _

_*_(Is not from Dracula, is from Hamlet. Don't be telling me I don't know my own Shakespeare.)


End file.
